The Health of Kuwait – Awake Yet?

Certain generalizations can be made from the analysis of our system. There seems to be a trend towards an ultraconservative approach to decision-making. Risk taking is discouraged and our policy-makers have adopted the “band-aid” technique to solve conflicts whereby essential rights are consistently being withdrawn when complaints are filed by both laypeople and uninformed politicians instead of engaging in educational campaigns. Dramatic examples include the withdrawal of the rights of emergency physicians to order important diagnostic tests such as CT scans or ultrasounds due to some past excesses and to unwarranted resistance exhibited by our more established radiologists. Paramedics, who in other nations perform life-saving procedures and provide critical medications, have seen their responsibilities downgraded following complaints by family members of transported patients. More recently, a new computer system introduced to a major teaching hospital to facilitate patient care was rapidly dismantled after components were stolen. This habit of bypassing core problems and placing a band-aid on a hemorrhaging wound is an example of passivism and poor judgment from the part of our leadership. The outcome is a system in failure due to repeated mistakes resulting from the lack of awareness.

So what solutions can we bring to this crisis? Well, to begin with, we should change our mindsets and refocus our efforts on finding solutions instead of lament over the problems. This is the quality that we should all strive to emulate. Taking a problem-solving approach instead of being inhibited by the challenges and obstacles will only impress positivism onto our system and promote creativity in this conservative environment. We should not fear taking risks as risk taking will lead to faster change. The sitting and waiting approach will only further widen the divide between us and the rest of the industrialized world.